The events of
September 11th have left most of us in a state of shock from which we have not
all recovered. Our hearts go out to the victims and survivors, and to
their families and loved ones. I know our members will have different
views of the current military action. I hope you each communicate your
views to your elected representatives.You may have heard that the attacks
required that New York City suspend its mayoral primary. That election
was rescheduled and did take place. Their rules require that each winner
receive at least forty per cent of the vote; if not, a runoff takes place
between the top two vote-getters. (In other words, they use a modified
Two Round Runoff system, where the threshold in the first election is forty per
cent instead of the usual fifty per cent plus one vote.)This is what happened in the
Democratic primary. No one received over 40% on September 25th, so Mark
Green and Fernando Ferrer faced off on October 11th, in a second expensive
election. If you have friends or family in New York City, especially if
they voted in the Democratic primary runoff election, you might speak to them
about the advantages of Instant Runoff Voting. New York City already uses
Choice Voting (and thus ranked ballots) for their school board elections, so
switching to a ranked IRV ballot for their mayoral primaries should be fairly
easy. (In case you're wondering, Mark Green won, and will face Republican
Michael Bloomberg, Conservative Terrance Gray, Liberal Alan Hevesi, Green Julia
Willebrand, Libertarian Kenny Kramer, and Working Families Kenneth Schaeffer in
November.)Closer to home, there is legislation
pending in Congress that we need you to support. Elsewhere in this
newsletter you will find an article that explains the legislation, and
pre-printed postcards for mailing to Senator Feinstein and your Congressional
Representative. Please read the article, sign and mail the postcards, and
let us know what sort of response you receive.

Letting your
elected officials know of your interest in proportional representation and
instant runoff voting is a small but significant step in making them a reality.

We would like to call your attention to
four bills currently in Congress that would bring us closer to implementing Proportional
Representation and Instant Runoff Voting. We ask that you take a few minutes to
send your representatives the postcards enclosed in this newsletter (hardcopy
only) that request them support and co-sponsor these bills.Please remember that opportunities
to pass legislation friendly to our cause are infrequent. As such, it is that
much more important to take advantage of this current opportunity. We ask you
to support CPR, and the cause of better voting systems by sending the postcards
today.The four bills are summarized
below. Three are in the House and one is in the Senate. Please note that
Senator Boxer is already a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, so it is a higher
priority to write to Senator Feinstein. However, you may want to send Senator
Boxer a "thank you" note.

All
Congress people can be reached with this generic address:
Hon. ______________
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

All
Senators can be reached with this generic address:
Hon. ______________
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

H. R. 1189;
Voters' Choice Act - Would allow states to use Proportional Representation in
multi-seat races. Recommends the use of Instant Runoff Voting to elect a
state's electoral college
for President and Vice President. Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary on
3/22/2001. Referred to House Judiciary on 3/22/2001. Referred to House
Administration on 3/22/2001. California co-sponsors: Rep Sanchez, Loretta .

HR 506; Congress 2004 Commission
Act - To establish a commission to make recommendations on the appropriate size
of membership of the House of Representatives and the method by which
Representatives are elected. Specifically mentions Proportional Representation.
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary on 2/7/2001. Referred to the
Subcommittee on the Constitution on 2/23/2001. No California co-sponsors.

The article ends “It's time
we stopped letting reapportionment define our politics for us.
It's time our politics were smart enough to reflect what we've become.”

Clearly,
this article and similar ones throughout the State provide us with great
opportunities to reply explaining that PR is THE solution to the redistricting
dilemma faced by various communities and communities of interest statewide!

Additionally,the title ‘Reapportionment divides and conquers’would be a great slogan (as Dave Robinson
pointed out) Maybe we can develop a logo or cartoon based on this? (Any
suggestions?)

San Francisco Initiative for March 2002

IRV Campaign Kickoff - November 17

The Campaign to promote the IRV
initiative for San Francisco will start on Saturday, November 17th
at 10am.

We’ll meet at Arriba Juntos, 1850
Mission Street between 14th and 15th, park in the lot to the left of the
building. From 16th St. BART walk 1.5 blocks north (it’s the building on the
left) (Muni buses #14 and 49).

Caleb Kleppner writes: “We are
planning a campaign kickoff in SF. We'll do a littlebit of training and discussion and then send people out to walk
precincts and table.” In addition to the CPR web site, you can find information
on the initiative and the campaign at CalIRV’s site at http://www.calirv.org

North Bay Chapter update

WIth a
charter review pending in Santa Rosa, we searched around for active members and
were reminded that there are some.

Wayne
Shepard writes “For the newsletter, you might include that the North Bay
Chapter (what there is of it) tabled this summer at the Booneville Activefest
and at the Petaluma Progressives annual event. We aren't quite as dead up
here as some people think!”

South Bay
Chapter report

The South Bay / Peninsula chapter is
putting its efforts into implementing IRV in Santa Clara County, and is doing
its part in supporting legislation that is conducive to PR and IRV (please use
the enclosed postcards).

IRV enabling legislation was
passed by the Santa Clara voters in 1998, thanks to the diligent efforts of CPR
President Steve Chessin. But implementation must wait for the punch card voting
equipment to be upgraded with equipment that accommodates ranked ballots. The
County has been inching towards this for several years. But now the CA
Secretary of State, Bill Jones, has de-certified our Votomatic punch card
system leaving the county no choice but to upgrade. IRV is getting closer!!!!

In San Mateo County, CPR member
Linden Hsu is running for Belmont City Council. His platform includes,
naturally, PR and IRV.

Jim Stauffer, (408) 432-9148jstauffer@igc.org

Local Chapters and Contacts

San Diego County Contact
is Edward Teyssier, 858-546-1774/email atedward@k-online.com

San Francisco Chapter
Contact is Betty Traynor (415)-558-8133/email at btraynor@energy-net.org

East Bay Chapter Contact
is David Greene (510)-658-3085/email at dmgreene@igc.org (new email)

Sacramento
County Contact is Pete Martineau (916)-967-0300/email at petemrtno@aol.com

El Dorado County contact
is Paula Lee (530)-644-8760/email at paulalee@jps.net

North Bay Contact is
Wayne Shepard (707)-5520-5317/email at paldebits@juno.com

Co-Vice-Presidents of
Local Chapters are Jim Stauffer (408)-432-9148 /email at jstauffer@igc.org

and Betty Traynor
(415)-558-8133 /email at btraynor@energy-net.org

Do you want the eNewsletter?

Send your name and e-mail address to
membership@fairvoteca.org if you wish to receive this newsletter by e-mail
instead of on paper. (This will save us time and cost and you will get your
newsletter quicker)

************************************************

Voice for Democracy is published by Californians for Proportional
Representation (prior to May 2000 Northern California Citizens for Proportional
Representation). Our web site at http://fairvoteca.org may have more current information. Please submit
articles or letters for publication to: c/o Nat Lerner, Voice for Democracy, 68
Penzance Street, Salinas, CA. 93906-1339 or e-mail tonatscottl@yahoo.com

************************************************

East Bay
News

The more progressive redistricting plan for the Berkeley
City Council was approved by the City Council for the 2002 elections.
Berkeley's city charter is similar to that of San Francisco, except that only a
45 percent vote is required to avoid a runoff in Berkeley, whereas a 50.1
percent vote is required in San Francisco, for Mayor and City
Council. Whoever loses a redistricting battle might want to do a PR
initiative campaign for charter amendment. Peter J. A. Gaposchkin.

How
the Germans do it! (Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) Voting)

This is the last of three brief articles on the
three main types of Proportional Representation showcasing the
historical/cultural environment where they occurred as well as the technical
background of the specific type of PR.

In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
was being formed in the part of occupied Germany controlled by France, Great
Britain and the USA. Britain and the USA wanted the Germans to use the single
member district winner-takes-all system that they were familiar with, while the
French and the Germans were more familiar with the List form of PR.The compromise was a new form of PR called
MMP. Each voter has two votes. The first vote is for a district representative
using first past the post as in Britain and the USA. The second vote is for a
Party list as described in the first article. Half the seats are allocated to
representatives from districts and the other half come from the Party lists and
are known as ‘list representatives’. The list representatives are allocated to
each party so as to make the total of district and list seats for each party to
be in proportion to the list votes each party receives. If a party has 10% of
the list vote and no district representatives, they would get all their
representatives from the party list. If a party has 60% of the district
representatives (i.e. 30% of the total) and has a list vote of 40%, they would
get an additional 10% from the party list. This ‘top up’ of district
representation is what makes MMP different from hybrid semi-PR systems and a
true proportional system. In 1996, New Zealand held its first MMP election and
since then, MMP has been used for regional elections in Scotland and Wales and
with some variations in some former Soviet Bloc countries.